Cats

Regular exams performed by a veterinarian help ensure your pet is healthy and can help assess other physical properties that may not be caught. Ensuring your pet is seen yearly can help keep your pets on track for maintaining a healthy body weight, ensuring they are in good health, monitoring any abnormalities and ensuring any questions or concerns you have about your pet are evaluated and explained.

Just like us pets get sick, unfortunately for veterinarians, our patients can’t tell us what is bothering them. We ensure your pet is seen as soon as possible and work with you to ensure your pet is getting the care they need to feel better.

It is important for animals to be put on a vaccine schedule to ensure they are protected against certain illnesses.

Core Vaccines-Means the patient should at least have these vaccines.

FVRCP+FeLV

• Required at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks old. Requires a booster 1 year after kitten series and then every 2 years thereafter.

• Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis-affects the respiratory system

• Calicivirus-affects the respiratory system

• Panleukopenia-feline parvovirus. Causes vomiting and diarrhea, a decrease in white blood cells.

• FeLV-Feline Leukemia Virus. Can affect many body systems-GI, immune, central nervous. Generally, cats diagnosed with FeLV do not have a long life expectancy. Transmitted through saliva-through licking, sharing of bowls, etc.

This vaccine can be split into two separate ones (FVRCP and/or FeLV) however our clinic has the combined vaccine.

Rabies

• Initial vaccine should be given at 16 weeks old. Require a booster in 1 year then every 2 years thereafter.

o Vaccine is good for 3 years however due to being in a rabies endemic area, we vaccinate every 2 years.

• Affects the nervous system and is a public health concern.

• Transmissible to humans from an infected animal. Transferred through bodily fluids-usually saliva.

Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)

• Causes immune suppression and cats are much more susceptible to illness.

• Should be kept indoors and away from other non-positive cats due to risk of spreading it.

• Can live fairly good lives with good medical care.

• Transmitted through bites.

• No vaccine available

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP)

There are many different parasites, both internal and external that can affect our pets.

Internal parasites such as round and flat (most commonly tapeworms) worms, can affect their health if not routinely dewormed. As kittens, we recommend deworming a minimum of twice usually in conjunction with their kitten series of vaccines.

Both dogs and cats can get heartworm disease however it is more prominent in dogs. Best prevention of heartworm in pets is to have them on a prescribed product that kills the parasite at a certain life stage to stop them from developing into adults. Heartworm is transmitted by mosquitoes and is very much a concern in Manitoba. If a pet is found to have heartworm, it means they have adult heartworms in their heart and could/will be affecting the health of the patient. This preventative is either a topical or chew given over the course of the season that runs from end of May to November.

Ectoparasites or parasites that are on the patient such as fleas, ticks, lice or mites can cause serious issues with not only your pet but some can also carry zoonotic diseases which means they can transmit disease to humans. Prescription topical and oral products are recommended to either inhibit the lifecycle of the parasite or completely kill the parasite.

In order to help us diagnose and safely monitor our patients, we offer many in house diagnostics. If there is special testing that is recommended by your veterinarian and not ran here, we work with multiple reference laboratories to collect and ship the samples.

• Complete blood count that checks the pets’ red and white blood cell counts as well as platelet count.

• Chemistry panels that check internal organ function and electrolytes

• Eye testing including Schirmer’s Tear test, fluorescein stain, tonometry

• Blood pressure

• Electrocardiogram

• Pulse oximetry

• Digital radiography (including dental)

• Abdominal ultrasound

• Cytology

• Fine needle aspirate analysis

• Additional blood, fecal and urine analysis

• Spay and neuter on cats, dogs, pigs, rabbits

• Exploratory and foreign body removal surgery

• Emergency procedures such as cystotomy, c-section

• Lump removal

• Wound repair

• Dental cleanings with or without extractions

• Orthopedics-limb amputation and femoral head ostectomy

• Specialist consultations and procedures

• Ophthalmic procedures such as cherry eye, enucleation, entropion